by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

HOUSTON - Dwight Howard's time on the Toyota Center podium was done, the newest Houston Rockets star having spent nearly 15 minutes giving a Cliffs-notes version of his wild offseason to a room full of news reporters while detailing the many ways in which they would contend for the crown.

Then in walked James Harden, the resident catalyst for this monumental makeover who - to the shock of no one - is still sporting that black and bushy beard that has been his trademark for so long now.

"Moses!" Howard yelled to his co-star as they switched spots. "The leader of the Red Nation is going to part the Red Sea. Moses!"

And with that bit of insightful banter, an attempt at prophecy here at the unofficial start of the NBA season: this Howard and Harden pairing is going to work just fine.

As superstar duos go, Howard-Harden is such a better, healthier, and more natural tandem than Howard-Kobe Bryant that it makes you wonder why it took the big man so long to make up his mind in the first place. Say what you will about Howard and his sometimes-silly ways, the focus on fun that has come to irritate fans (and, no doubt, the ultra-serious Bryant himself), but there's something to be said for self awareness.

With nearly a decade of pro basketball behind him and a career arc that must go up this season lest his legacy be seriously damaged, 27-year-old Howard went with the team and the co-star that fit him and his personality. That much was clear during a Rockets media day that may as well have been a fraternity party at nearby University of Houston.

From Harden on down, this group of players - Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and the rest - will fit Howard and his style in the sort of way that the rest of the NBA should be concerned about. He'll play unburdened basketball Los Angeles Lakers fans never got to see, free from the dysfunctional dynamic that surrounded him last season and had so much to do with the vast personality differences between Howard and nearly everyone around him. It doesn't mean the Rockets will be there at the end, and I'd currently predict that they fall short of the Western Conference finals, but that has more to do with the powerful parity on their side of the league than the question of whether they will click.

"We're goofy; we have fun, but we like to work," said Harden, whose arrival last October via trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder started this whole Rockets renaissance. "We're not going to be all strict. We're young. We have to have funā?¦But when it's time to get serious, when it's time to win, we'll be focused.

"He's going to teach me some things that I don't know, and I'll teach him some things that he doesn't know. That's the kind of partnership and friendship we're going to have in order to be successful."

Anyone who enjoys seeing talent maximized has to appreciate what they have going here.

"This team here, we have sort of like that same style of basketball - four out, one in, we're going to run and beat you in the halfcourt with pick and rolls and post-ups, and just (use) a guy like James Harden, who I believe is one of the best two-guards in the NBA and has an opportunity to be the best," Howard said. "That's my teammate. That's my guy, and I'm going to stick with him."

Before the discussion on whether Bryant and Howard and their polar-opposite ways could have ever worked even begins, it should end with the fact that - especially in light of Bryant's Achilles tendon tear - Howard is right that Harden is the better basketball pick in today's NBA. Howard already had his eye on a time when Bryant would be gone and some unnamed star might come join him in Los Angeles and surely cringed when the notion of Bryant playing several more years came into play.

To both of their credits, whatever acrimony existed mostly was kept in the private sector. But while that may have made it an amicable divorce, it certainly doesn't make it a winning formula for title contention. But this? A finally-healthy Howard with an in-his-prime Harden and a good supporting cast? This is what you do if you're Howard.

Many are the tale of player bondings in the preseason and flopping come regular season time, but it's worth noting that Howard and most of his new teammates have certainly expedited the getting-to-know-you period. They had workouts together in Aspen, Colo. and Los Angeles, and have continued the good times in town with routine pick-up games and, for a bit of off-field fun, a trip to a local high school football game on Thursday night.

Howard, for the moment anyway, appears to have found his new home.

"In Orlando, the years that we went to the Finals and made it deep into the playoffs, we spent a lot of time together," he said. "I really like that about this team. It's a close knit team. The chemistry is already there. We spend time with each other. Also, we've been texting and talking about ways we can improve as a team. That's one thing I really like.

"For any team to be successful, you have to have a great environment. You don't want to work in a bad place. What happened in LA was just unfortunate. We were all playing with injuries last season, and things that happened. (But) it's over. It's done with. You can't go back and pull different situations out and talk about it. I'm in a better place mentally, physically and spiritually now, so I'm looking forward to the season."